Music Marketing The Velocity Game

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The 20,000 Foot View: Music streaming has become so central to the functioning of the record label business model that labels are becoming beholden to streaming service optimisation. A shift towards ever-larger numbers of new releases targeted at streaming success threatens to dislocate the underlying business model of bigger record labels and cause a disconnect between what music audiences want and what they actually get. These are structural industry challenges with potentially seismic implications.
Key Insights
- Chasing stream and market share through increased and velocity of releases is how record labels and artists prioritising short-term streaming success over strategy
- A central and effect of the volume is a demotion in value the artist as a brand the track – artists are second-level format within streaming
- Pop and are the top two preferred for overall consumers, but hip dominates the top Spotify tracks of placings while pop was distant second on
- There is risk that the vicious/virtuous circle artist & revenue and playlist influence is turning streaming into genre micro-climate
- Placing bets heavily streaming younger listeners to hip hop streams risks alienating streamers who are more likely be paid users – label strategy is becoming decoupled from business strategy
- A tension emerging among music streamers: of streamers are spending more time to playlists but prefer listening music they choose
Companies and brands mentioned in this report: Spotify, Universal Music